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Security report for worldillustrationawards.com

The Association of Illustrators · Media · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

The World Illustration Awards website is a professionally maintained platform operated by The Association of Illustrators (AOI), a reputable UK-based professional body for illustrators. The site serves as a global showcase for illustration talent, providing information about competitions, shortlisted projects, and exhibitions. It targets illustrators, art commissioners, and the creative industry worldwide. The partnership with the Directory of Illustration enhances its reach and credibility. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including WooCommerce, Google Analytics, and Cloudflare DNS, ensuring a stable and performant user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS, domain locking, and CAPTCHA protections, though there is room for improvement in DNSSEC and security policy transparency. Privacy compliance is good with clear cookie and privacy policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy, well-branded, and provides valuable industry content.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  2. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  3. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Cloudflare

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching worldillustrationawards.com

This scan found 20 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
65
Security headers
75
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
68

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The AOI leverages its long-standing reputation since 1973 to position the World Illustration Awards as a premier global event in the illustration sector. The business model focuses on non-profit professional development through competitions, exhibitions, and networking. Revenue streams likely include sponsorships, partnerships, and membership fees. The target audience includes professional and new talent illustrators, agencies, publishers, and art commissioners. The partnership ecosystem with Directory of Illustration and sponsors strengthens market presence. Growth indicators include a decade of continuous awards and expanding digital engagement via newsletters and social media. Strategic observations suggest continued emphasis on digital marketing and community building to sustain and grow influence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, domain transfer and update locks, and use of Cloudflare DNS services. The presence of CAPTCHA on forms reduces automated abuse risk. However, the absence of DNSSEC and explicit security policies or incident response contacts indicates gaps in comprehensive security governance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Privacy policies and cookie consent align with GDPR requirements, but incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not evident. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional security headers, DNSSEC, and publishing security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Implement additional HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Regularly audit and update all plugins and third-party libraries to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by providing vulnerability disclosure and data protection officer contact details.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Association of Illustrators
Description
The World Illustration Awards is a global celebration of illustration, run by The Association of Illustrators (AOI) in partnership with the Directory of Illustration. It showcases great illustration from around the globe and supports illustrators through competitions, exhibitions, and promotional opportunities.
Key services
World Illustration Awards competition, Shortlist and winner announcements, Touring exhibitions, Networking and promotional tools for illustrators, Partnership with Directory of Illustration
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics (gtag.js), Cloudflare DNS, jQuery, Flickity carousel, Select2, Underscore.js, Video.js, Litespeed Cache
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain locked with clientTransferProhibited and clientUpdateProhibited
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of CAPTCHA (Cloudflare Turnstile) on forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Metorik
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Ads (AW-723307052)
Marketing tools
Metorik (ecommerce analytics), Mailchimp (newsletter signup)
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is rich and relevant to the illustration awards industry.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (WordPress).
  4. Good privacy and cookie policy presence with consent mechanism.
  5. No visible security policy or incident response information.
  6. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  7. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and consistency of the domain.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with WooCommerce for ecommerce capabilities and Contact Form 7 for user interactions. It uses modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, Flickity for carousels, Select2 for enhanced selects, and Video.js for media handling. Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are integrated for marketing and analytics. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and DNS security benefits. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site uses Litespeed Cache for performance optimization. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party plugins which require regular maintenance to avoid vulnerabilities. Overall, the technical infrastructure is robust and supports the business needs effectively.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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